In 1912, the Maryland Agricultural College, located in College Park, was destroyed by fire.

In 1924, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels before he could complete his opera "Turandot." (It was finished by Franco Alfano.)

In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

In 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.

In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced he was leaving the Johnson administration to become president of the World Bank.

In 1972, the coin-operated video arcade game Pong, created by Atari, made its debut at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, Calif.

In 1981, actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, Calif., at age 43.

In 1986, actor Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa, at age 82.

In 1987, a Korean Air 707 jetliner en route from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok was destroyed by a bomb planted by North Korean agents with the loss of all 115 people aboard.

In 2001, George Harrison, the "quiet Beatle," died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58.

Ten years ago: The White House quietly announced that federal workers would get a smaller pay raise the following month because President George W. Bush was freezing part of the increase, citing the fight against terrorism. Celebrity publicist Lizzie Grubman left the Suffolk County, N.Y., jail after serving 37 days of a 60-day sentence for backing her sport utility vehicle into a crowd outside a trendy Hamptons nightclub and fleeing.

Five years ago: A court in Sudan convicted British teacher Gillian Gibbons of insulting Islam for letting her pupils name a teddy bear "Muhammad" and sentenced her to 15 days in prison. (Gibbons was pardoned after spending more than a week in custody; she then left the country.) Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, embarked on a new, five-year term as a civilian president, a day after ceding the powerful post of army chief. Former Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde died in Chicago at age 83. Former General Motors chief executive Roger B. Smith died in Detroit at age 82.

Page 2 of 2 -

One year ago: Eurozone ministers sent Greece an 8 billion-euro ($10.7 billion) Christmas rescue package to stem an immediate cash crisis. Hard-line Iranian protesters stormed British diplomatic compounds in what began as an apparent state-approved show of anger over the latest Western sanctions to punish Tehran for its nuclear program. American Airlines' parent company, AMR Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection, citing high labor and fuel costs and the weak economy.